Daily Briefing April 11: Day 188 - High Court to decide whether to wade in on Gaza aid

Legal reporter Jeremy Sharon on Israeli groups’ petition seeking to flood Strip with aid and aid workers; health reporter Renee Ghert-Zand on ‘invisible’ wartime brain injuries

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

It is day 188 of the war with Hamas. Legal reporter Jeremy Sharon and health reporter Renee Ghert-Zand join host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today’s episode.

Borschel-Dan launches the episode with a slew of headlines, including the IDF’s killing of three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a strike in the northern Gaza Strip and increased warnings of Iran strikes on Israel.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Israel will open a new land crossing into the Gaza Strip designed mainly to facilitate deliveries to Palestinians of aid from overseas or from neighboring Jordan. Sharon updates us on a High Court of Justice petition from Israeli organizations that would go much further than that to bring humanitarian aid into the strip.

A group of Canadian citizens and residents whose children and parents were murdered by Hamas during the October 7 atrocities has filed an application in the Canadian Federal Court to the country’s attorney general demanding that the Canadian government annul its March decision to resume funding UNRWA, the UN agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians. Sharon explains the issues at hand in this case.

Ghert-Zand recently spoke with Dr. Raquel C. Gardner, director of clinical research of the Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center at Sheba Medical Center, who is an expert in the “invisible” side effect of war, traumatic brain injury (TBI). We hear what it is and how she is raising awareness in Israel.

During a site visit to Beit Halohem, a center for rehabilitating former soldiers, Ghert-Zand viewed a ceramics exhibit and was struck by the pieces created by Amnon Sharon, who was taken captive during a fierce tank battle on the Golan Heights on October 6, 1973, the first day of the Yom Kippur War. He was held and tortured for eight months and is now bringing this experience into the open through this unique PTSD treatment.

For the latest updates, please see The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.